Aside from discussing matters such as climate change and sustainable development goals, Mr Martin will have the opportunity to discuss prescient subjects such as the ongoing wars in Ukraine and Gaza. 

He has already rebutted some of the Chinese ambassador’s comments to this newspaper last month, in which He Xiangdong claimed Ireland was succumbing to American and European “fever”.

While the two countries have differing views on numerous foreign policy topics, this may well be an opportunity for Mr Martin to highlight China’s role in ongoing cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns globally, as was highlighted in yesterday’s 'Irish Examiner' by Richard Browne, director of the National Cyber Security Centre.

Across Europe, it is expected that disinformation campaigns by Russia and China will increase. Hopefully Mr Martin will take the opportunity to highlight to the Chinese authorities the unacceptability of it meddling in or trying to influence Ireland’s affairs — up to and including hybrid attacks on maritime and subsea infrastructure.

As Ireland’s stance on Israeli atrocities in Gaza comes under the microscope, Mr Martin will need to straddle the balance between delicate diplomacy and speaking truth to power, something which he appears to be relishing more and more in his role in foreign affairs.

Abortion tops the agenda in US elections

The many battles in the forthcoming elections in the US in the next 12 months will not simply focus on winning the hearts and minds of the electorate there, but specifically on women’s rights, and the right to have an abortion.

Consequential votes in several states — starting today in Ohio, Kentucky, and Virginia — will see the abortion issue emerging as the defining faultline of the elections, and will be seen as a fresh test of its political potency nearly 18 months after the US Supreme Court ended the federal right to a pregnancy termination.

The 2022 decision to overturn Roe v Wade threw American politics into turmoil and transformed what was a long-standing social battle into an electoral timebomb which helped the Democratic Party to critical victories in the mid-term elections 12 months ago. 

Now, with several staunchly Republican states having implemented abortion restrictions, abortion is once more to the fore in elections across the country.

Kentucky is one of those states, but the Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, has used its near-total ban on abortion to paint his Republican rival as an extremist. In Ohio, a socially conservative state, a question on the ballot that could enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution is expected to be a bellwether for the country as a whole.

In Virginia, one of the only southern states without an abortion ban, Republican governor Glenn Youngkin is trying to flip the argument by labelling Democrats as extremists because they will not support the “common sense” solution proposed by him, an abortion ban after 15 weeks of pregnancy.

These elections will give politicos and strategists a firm indication of what people are thinking ahead of next year’s presidential and congressional elections and how the abortion issue will shape the political landscape.

Such is the divide on the issue that in Pennsylvania, where the Republicans and Democrats are battling over a state Supreme Court seat, a gun control advocacy group has taken out advertising backing the Democratic candidate because of fears about the future of abortion rights.

The GOP will be concerned that Democrats have prevailed in six out of six ballot measures which have put abortion straight to voters. The result of this has seen tens of millions of dollars poured into the Ohio campaign by national groups on either side of the argument, transforming an off-year vote into one of the most important the issue has yet seen.

Doing it the right way

Ukraine is facing many battles — physical and political — at this point, but the resolve of the country to attain membership of the EU is seen both locally and internationally as one which is vital to the country’s future wellbeing.

At a time when the conflict in Gaza has redirected the world’s focus from the war in Ukraine, it is time for the country’s diverse allies — and those in Europe particularly — to double down on its support for Kyiv.

But what Ukraine says it does not want, and particularly from next month’s meeting of EU leaders, is a sympathy vote on gaining membership. The administration in Ukraine rightly believes that, unless it meets all the criteria for accession to the EU, the matter should not even be considered. A review due to be published tomorrow is expected to reveal which of those countries seeking membership is most advanced with accession reforms.

Ukraine says it is committed to winning the war and gaining membership of the EU, but before the war began discussions on enlargement were essentially taboo. That has changed radically over the last two years and the subject is now treated with greater urgency, but Ukraine’s assertion it wants no undue favours is the correct one and one which will stand it in good stead into the future.